The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 25, January 1893: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 25, January 1893: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
Among the secondary uses to which playing cards have been applied, we
find them as political weapons. Among such cards are those which were
produced to commemorate what is historically known as the "Titus Oates
Plot" in 1678, one of the most prominent incidents being the murder of
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, who is here shown (Fig. 11), carried on a horse,
the day after his murder, to Primrose Hill, where the body was put into
a ditch, the carrying on the horse and the discovery in the ditch being
shown as coincident. They were produced, probably, as one of the means
of inflaming the public mind against the Roman Catholics, which led to
the execution, among others, of the Viscount Stafford in 1680. As
illustration of costume and of stirring incident, these cards are, apart
from their intention, an admirable and interesting series, and are worth
study from their historic and artistic aspects.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.]
[Illustration: FIG. 13.]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.]
We come now to playing cards designed as methods of education, of which
a considerable number have been produced--and which cover the widest
possible range--from cookery to astrology! In the middle and latter half
of the seventeenth century, England, France and Germany abounded in
examples, the most attractive being the series of "Jeux Historiques,"
invented by Desmarests, a member of the French Academy acting under the
instructions of Cardinal Mazarin--as aids to the education of the boy
King, Louis XIV. In Figs. 12, 13, 14, and 15 are given examples from the
four packs so designed, and they afford a good instance of the primary
use of cards being subordinated to the educational. The first of these
is the "Jeu de Fables," with representations and short notices of the
heroes and heroines of classic history, the four Kings being Jupiter,
Neptune, Pluto, and Saturn. The second is the "Jeu de Geographie," the
four suits being formed by the division of the world into four quarters,
each having its distinctive group of thirteen designs, with brief
geographical descriptions; Great Britain being shown as the Eight of
Hearts. If designed by an Englishman, it would surely have been as Queen
of that suit that our country would have appeared. We have then the "Jeu
de Rois de France," intended to teach the history and succession of the
Kings of France, whom we find depicted in their numeric order, from
Pharamond to Louis XIV., with the length of their reigns and short
biographies.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.]
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